


Family

by notjustmom



Series: August Writing Prompts 2019 [2]
Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-02
Updated: 2019-08-02
Packaged: 2020-07-29 07:02:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20078098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notjustmom/pseuds/notjustmom
Summary: I wanted more Tony and Nebula, so I wrote more Tony and Nebula...Day 2 Prompt: Hurt/Comfort





	Family

“Family?”

“Hmm?” Tony asked quietly as he stared out into space.

“Do you have family, back on Earth?”

Tony rubbed his eyes then climbed out of the seat where he had been spending far too many hours thinking of Pepper and having nightmares of watching Strange turn to dust, though he hadn’t known him well, and of Peter’s last moments, then slowly stretched out on the floor with a groan.

“Family. I have people I love, people who are my friends, but if you are asking if I have a wife or children, or parents, the answer is no.”

“The boy. What was his name?”

“Peter. His name was Peter. He was an orphan. But he had an aunt -”

“And he had you, he knew you loved him.”

Tony’s breath caught in surprise as she went on, as if he had asked her a question.

“He fought for you, and fought well, to honor you. To make you proud. He loved you in return.”

“He didn’t really know me, Nebula, he was just a kid.”

“You have a partner, a girlfriend. Back on Earth.”

“I did, I do. If she - if she isn’t dust and if she’s forgiven me for leaving her again. We had just set a date for our wedding when the Wiz - when Stephen showed up in the park. I had no choice but to -”

“Tell me about her.”

“About Pepper?”

“This is an acceptable name for an Earth woman?”

“Her real name, the name her parents gave her is Virginia. But sometime in the first week that she worked for my company, I called her Pepper, I can’t remember why now, maybe we had a fight-”

“You fight with this woman you love?”

“I’m part Italian. My mother’s side.” She stared at him neutrally as she had the last few days when he said something she had no context for. “Italy is a country, the people there tend to love and fight with equal passion, but Pepper and I only bicker, it’s - what we do.”

“My sister and I have spent our lives hating each other. Fighting for Thanos’ attention, which I had mistaken for love. It is not the same thing at all.”

“You aren’t really his daughters.” 

“He stole us, after he defeated our planets, and he called us daughters, we were too young to understand - I don’t remember who or what I was before I became what he made me.”

“You can choose to be different, Nebula.”

“It is far too late -”

“You saved me. Neb. Without you, I’d still be stuck on Titan. I could never have fixed the ship if you hadn’t been here, and I know -”

“Your father.”

“I had one.”

“He would have been proud of you.”

Tony went completely silent for the first time in days, and Nebula moved from her perch to check for signs he was still with her. “I have been in many battles over many years, and I have never seen anyone fight him as you did, you did not fight for yourself. You fight not from hatred and the hunger for power like Thanos and those who follow him. You are defending those you love, the world you love. If your father was a decent man, he would have been proud.”

“He wasn’t a decent man, Nebula.”

“Do you wish for children?”

“You do have a gift for changing the subject, Neb. Yes. Mostly for selfish reasons, but I think I’d be a good father. I wouldn’t make the same mistakes my father did. I’d make my own, of course - I had a dream, night before we left Earth, a little girl, dark eyes, dark hair, sassy, like her mom. I know. If I can make it home -”

“You’ll be a great father, Tony.”

“Yeah?”

She turned her head and met the hopeful look in his eyes, with the hesitant beginning of a smile. “You have taught me how to smile, so I believe anything is possible.”

For the first time in weeks, even as he was literally lost in space millions of miles from home, Tony Stark couldn’t help but laugh.


End file.
